As I have been engaged in more teaching this year I wanted to write some more about my teaching concepts relating to the saxophone, improvisation, and jazz.
I mentioned in one of the last posts some of the areas I would be working on in Greece this summer and I think it would be good for me to expand a little on those.

First, allow me to back up a little to the 1995 when I first began to study with Frank Gratkowski at the Cologne Musikhochschule. This point is important for the following reasons. When I met Frank I had already reached a decent technical level on the saxophone. I was playing tunes in all keys, circular breathing for long periods, and could play plenty of difficult classical etudes. I had transcribed all of “Motion” and was sailing along Konitz-esque. What happened when I met Frank, was the realization that all of this meant nothing unless it was transposed into my own music via the saxophone. “That’s great”, he would say, “but where are you in the music?”. Through several years of listening to worlds of musics my ears were opened to sounds beyond jazz and I was able to start forming my own approach to music.

Frank also showed me a quarter tone fingering. From that moment in 1995 something sparked inside and I started a long journey of developing a microtonal saxophone system and, most importantly, turning it into a functioning music. This is the catch: now I have a lot of players coming to me and asking me about microtones, the fingerings, how to practice them etc. but I can clearly see that unless they have an idea of the music they want to make they are useless. It’s like giving a Ferrari to someone who can’t drive. The point is and the main lesson I took from him is that the technique is a means to an end and the end is the music making. Sounds simple but I find it needs to be made clear to young players who are more attracted by the sign rather than the thing signified.

All of this has another level as well. It’s not enough now to come out of your cosy little music school nailing Giant steps at 300 BPM and playing Berio Sequences backwards, dating the hottest korean violinist, und und und. There are plenty of players who can do that and are still effectively nowhere. The technique of the instrument has to be perfected to each individuals potential-no doubt-but if young players want to get anywhere they have to work on their own language and develop a personal style. This is one of the main thrusts of my teaching- helping to find this personal touch which is what really counts in the end.

With regards of the techniques of the instrument I reduce my formula to 1) maximum speed, proficiency, and fluency with the minimum of effort, and 2) no blockages between intention and execution. In fact, intention and execution form the pillars of what I teach and they take many years to understand and refine. I am deeply interested in the breath and it’s relationship to our bodies and our state of mind with and without the instrument. For this reason I introduce some elements from the Eastern martial and contemplative arts to aid the player.

By focusing in on the inner intentions of the player I have found that one can automatically squeeze out those nasty jazz pimples like pattern based playing, cliches, licks, sonic testosterone, and all the other things we have heard over and over.

For the bread and butter sax technique I like to work on selected works from the Baroque and classical literature and of course 20th century music like Scelsi, Stockhausen, Ligeti, Messiaen. It is essential that young players are not only familiar with the techniques employed in the solo literature of the last centuries but also the compositional devices behind them. Understanding the techniques behind the grafting of these musics is a big help and an important part of what Frank also taught was using the techniques of 20th century music in improvisation.

Technique is not so much speed in my definition but more control. Control of tone, coloring of individual notes, infusing each note with a vocal quality, working with the irregularities of the copper cylindrical bore we pass our breath through and turning them into musical elements- these are the traits of a good technique in my book. If I may toot my own horn for a bit, here is a short excerpt on Soprano Sax I played which is for me, technically satisfying because it fits the above definitions applied to a classical piece. It’s the vocal quality I’m most after, even if I am playing music that is not what I usually am submerged in:

Music has been trivialized and commercialized in our recent history and young players are forced into promoting themselves and basically dealing with the whole “business” side of the field. Every Tom and Harry has his flash website and 12 page colored digipack CD to offer. All this is well and good but we have to spend the majority of our time and efforts on the music itself- we can never afford to lose this focus. This relates to the “intention” I mentioned above and this must remain as pure as it first was when we heard that first beautiful tone somewhere and something inside was set alight.

Improvisation and composition are closely related and so a basic grounding in counterpoint, and construction of form is essential. I have been very lucky to work intensively with the artist Rebecca Horn who taught me a lot with regards to proportion and form in her larger installation works and paintings. An inter-disciplinary approach to form is vital in helping to understand proportion and balance in music.

We are not all composers, some of us are simply players and in the field of interpretation and here there is much to be explored. For my part I am involved in “jazz” and creative music in which the player is more often than not the creator . The great saxophone players in my tradition have always been great composers- both writing composers and “instant” composers. Composing today means being familiar with a long tradition and the best way to go about this is to study the works as we also learn them on our instruments. In our saxophone group work we have transcribed vocal music from Gesualdo as well as pieces by Stockhausen. By playing and analyzing them we can also understand the intentions of the composers and through osmosis their compositional processes and organization skills can be used to inspire and help our personal language on the instrument.

I am deeply interested in “opening” the saxophone sound and use the voice, overtones, the natural breath, and the mental focus of the player to attain it. By “opening” I mean removing obstacles that stand in the way between the player’s sound intention or inner voice and the physical sound that emanates from the bell. A compete mastery of the saxophone for me means a huge dynamic and sound control of the instrument- something I rarely hear anywhere. The instrument itself has this massive potential for ultimate pianissimos through to soul-rousing fortissimos and we should use them all. I am not so interested in mouthpieces, horn types, reeds, and related. Doublings like flute and clarinet are perhaps important for getting jobs later but I don’t teach them much, I am more focused on removing all the technical limitations on the saxophone than mixing up other embouchures into the blend.

From my beginnings in quarter tone fingerings for saxophone I have progressed to be interested in tuning according to the overtone row and all kinds of alternate tunings. There is a profound connection between intonation and timbre and the ears have to be trained alongside the fingers.  This is a massive area and it verily opens up the ears and minds of young players. Well-tempered western music has it’s place but the future lies in using the other models and combining them in new and meaningful ways. Again, I will always repeat: there has to be music made out of it. Whatever structures, etudes, or ideas I come with I will always try to lend it a form and turn it into a piece of music.

The group saxophone work I began in Greece 6 years ago has become an important part of my teaching. In these groups we are able to explore overtone tuning and all kinds of textures that are not possible in a solo setting. Also, each of the players can bring different ideas- it is like an open laboratory for saxophone, tuning, and much more. The groups have varied from 4 to 16. Anything is possible here.